SAHJ Special Issue – Call for Papers

Studies in Arts and Humanities Journal Special Issue – ‘Utopian Acts’

Curating editors: Katie Stone and Raphael Kabo

Following the Utopian Acts conference in September 2018, we have partnered with Studies in Arts and Humanities Journal to publish a special issue expanding upon the themes and directions of the conference.

In this issue, we aim to relocate utopia from its conventionally understood position as “a static, perfect and harmonious whole, at odds with the complexity of the real world” (Ruth Levitas, Utopia as Method, 7). Rather, we understand utopia as born of and responding to activist praxis and radical demands for change. As activist organisations working tirelessly around the world recognise, to demand a better, more utopian world is neither distraction or escape, but instead forms a moral and political imperative.

We are interested in submissions which discuss utopia and activism in the context of a variety of disciplines both outside of and inside the academy. Discussions on the day and in the wake of the conference have drawn on fields including activist praxis, utopian studies, radical feminism, queer theory, eco-criticism and decolonial studies, and we are excited to continue these conversations in print. Interventions which address the dangers, pitfalls or misappropriations of utopianism are also encouraged.

We seek a broad range of responses from a variety of academic and non-academic agents, including but not limited to standard academic papers, multi-modal work, reflections, responses, fiction and poetry. We are looking for pieces which reach beyond the academy in terms of clarity of expression, intersectional approach, and interrogation of potential bonds of solidarity between activist and academic communities.

If you would like to submit to this special issue, please send an abstract (maximum 350 words) as a PDF or DOCX file, or in the body of the email, to organisers@utopia.ac by the 26th October 2018.

Deadlines

Abstracts (maximum 350 words) are due in by the 26th October 2018. If your submission is accepted, you will be required to submit a full piece (maximum 12,000 words – see below for guidelines) by the 7th January 2019. Submissions will go through an open academic peer review process in January and February. The journal issue is due out in March 2019, so we are committed to actively working with you and your peer reviewers to prepare your piece for that deadline.

Submission Guidelines

We are looking for academic articles and non-academic written pieces (such as reflections, responses, fiction and poetry). We also welcome other suggestions for multi-modal work.

The word limit for submissions is 12,000 words including all references and notes. There is no lower word limit.

SAHJ is an open access journal. This means that while all work submitted must be original (i.e. not previously published under another license), you are welcome to post your work online, for example on an institutional or personal site prior to, during, and after the submission process. All work published in the journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

For more submission guidelines, including style guidelines and a preparation checklist, please visit the SAHJ website.